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<title>if this hatefulness (begins to fade) by SilverUtahraptor</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27102574">if this hatefulness (begins to fade)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverUtahraptor/pseuds/SilverUtahraptor'>SilverUtahraptor</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>91 Days (Anime)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Ending, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, Minor Violence, Not Quite a Drabble, Post-Canon, Revenge, Revenge and then you kiss or something, Short One Shot, the ship is there if you squint</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-09 04:42:03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>772</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27102574</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverUtahraptor/pseuds/SilverUtahraptor</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Two men who have both lost everything find that they still have each other.<br/>Or: these two idiots have yet another city to burn down.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Angelo Lagusa | Avilio Bruno &amp; Nero Vanetti, Angelo Lagusa | Avilio Bruno/Nero Vanetti</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>51</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>if this hatefulness (begins to fade)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/PearlBear/gifts">PearlBear</a>, <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/NightHunterDeath/gifts">NightHunterDeath</a>, <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Firefly_Aki/gifts">Firefly_Aki</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>For Pearl, who made me watch this and probably laughed about my tears <s>and then let me figure out myself the fandom is basically dead</s>, Night, who spent some premium bonding time with me to be equally shocked by whatever happened next, and Firefly, who spent that whole time basically egging us on. You’re all really cool and I’m glad I met you❤️ I don’t know what this is but it’s for you.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Two men, on a beach.</p><p>One is cocking a pistol.</p><p>The other walks on, not reacting to the familiar sound.</p><p>Time stretches on and on, a moment lasting forever-</p><p>The surf keeps hitting the sandy shore.</p><p>Nero watches Avilio - no, Angelo - walk away, back unguarded. His friend. His brother. And the man who took everything from him.</p><p>(They took away everything from Angelo first.)</p><p>His hands are shaking.</p><p>Every step the dark-haired man takes brings him further away from death.</p><p>Or does it?</p><p>The shot is impossibly loud, echoing on the sand dunes.</p><p>Angelo slowly raises a hand to the graze on his cheek, blood starting to drip down.</p><p>“You don’t have a reason to live? So you should just stop living?! What a joke!” Nero snarls, but unlike his hands earlier, his voice is steady. “Find a new reason to go on! Find a reason not to die! Find a reason to be anything else but <em>empty</em>!”</p><p><em>Am I not enough of a reason</em>, his words imply.</p><p><em>Isn’t there a whole world out there for us to face together</em>, he doesn’t say.</p><p><em>I only have you left, too</em>, Nero Vanetti doesn’t allow himself to think.</p><p>He turns around.</p><p>He leaves.</p><p>He looks back only when he has almost reached their - his - car.</p><p>Angelo has turned to stare at the sea, hand still cupping his cheek.</p><p>Nero is glad he can’t see his face.</p><p>(Nero won’t see Angelo’s face again for six months, two weeks and four days.)</p>
<hr/><p>Nero thinks of Fio, pregnant and alone and hearing the news of her family’s ruin second or third hand. From Galassia mouths, most likely.</p><p>He thinks of her.</p><p>And then-</p><p>He doesn’t go to see her.</p><p>(There will be people watching her, and she doesn’t need stress right now.)</p><p>It hurts, but it’ll be better for the both of them if he stays away for now.</p><p>He goes to Milwaukee instead.</p><p>Nero had always been the type to make friends easily - he was the heir, he smiled a lot and drank a lot and most of all was generous with his money. His closest friends, his <em>family</em> are dead, of course. But he still <em>knows</em> people, and some of those are in Milwaukee.</p><p>There are people looking for him here, too, but Milwaukee might hate the Galassia almost as much as he does, so he stays unnoticed by the ones who want him dead.</p><p>He cajoles, he threatens, he promises, he smiles.</p><p>After all, the Galassia have lost many men in Lawless.</p><p>The Galassia have overreached.</p><p>The Galassia struggle to hold Chicago.</p>
<hr/><p>Angelo thinks of Fio too.</p><p>He knows Nero won’t go to see her-</p><p>So he does.</p><p>There are men sent by the Galassia here, but his face is new and he has spent the better part of a decade becoming good at being unnoticed.</p><p>This time, he explains everything.</p><p>Fio stares at him, hazel eyes a few shades lighter than Nero’s. There are dark circles underneath them.</p><p>(Fio has grown up a Don’s daughter. She was never expected to take part but she always <em>knew </em>far more than anyone might guess. There is freedom in knowledge even when your role is to be pretty and buy an alliance and mourn your Dead.)</p><p>Angelo has come here for death, maybe, but-</p><p>She doesn’t give that to him.</p><p>(She is, after all, a Don’s daughter. A Don’s sister. She understands all too well about family and <em>Family</em> and the blood owed to the Dead.)</p><p>“Why go look for a judge when you’re the most cruel one yourself,” she says.</p><p>Angelo startles.</p><p>Fio stares at him for a moment longer before turning to look out of the window.</p><p>Her hands are folded protectively over her stomach.</p><p>“I hear that Chicago is pretty rough these days,” she muses. “A lot of people calling in old debts…”</p><p>Angelo leaves, eventually.</p><p>There are no Galassia men watching Fio.</p><p>(Fio names her daughter Nicci. <em>Victory</em>.)</p>
<hr/><p>Two men, in the ruins of what was - until an hour ago - the stronghold of Chicago’s Galassia Family.</p><p>One has spent six months, two weeks and four days working in the shadows to bring this Family down.</p><p>The other has spent a bit over six months and two weeks working in <em>different</em> shadows to bring this Family down.</p><p>They have seen each other’s handiwork before, but their paths didn’t cross until now.</p><p>(Six months and four days after they last saw each other, Angelo Lagusa looks at Nero Vanetti. For the first time since they first met each other, his smile is raw and genuine and <em>real</em>. There is no pistol in Nero’s hands.)</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>...I think you can tell I’m not over the ending of the final episode.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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